Generally, imaging may refer to capturing and representing the color and brightness characteristics of a real-world environment in a digital format and/or a film format (e.g., in photographs and/or motion video). A large variety of image capture devices exist, thus providing consumers with numerous ways to capturing image data.
As image capture devices, such as cameras, become more popular, such devices may be employed as standalone hardware devices or integrated into various other types of devices. For instance, still and video cameras are now regularly included in wireless communication devices (e.g., mobile phones), tablet computers, laptop computers, video game interfaces, home automation devices, and even automobiles and other types of vehicles.
In stereoscopic imaging (also referred to as “3D imaging”), two cameras that are offset from one another are used to simultaneously capture two perspectives of a scene. The distance by which the two lenses are offset may be referred to as the “baseline” or the “interaxial separation.” Some stereoscopic imaging systems have a baseline that is similar to the distance between a person's eyes. Configured as such, a stereo imaging system may capture a scene in a similar manner as the human eyes perceive the scene. However, for various reasons, other stereo imaging systems may utilize baselines that are larger or smaller than the typical distance between a human's eyes.
A pair of images of a scene that are captured by a pair of offset cameras may be referred to as “stereo image pair.” A stereo image pair may be utilized in various ways. In particular, a stereo image pair may be combined to form a “viewable stereoscopic image” (also referred to as a “3D image”). When viewed on a stereoscopic display, and possibly with the aid of a stereoscopic viewer (e.g., 3D glasses), the human brain perceives such 3D images as having depth.
Further, stereo image pairs may provide depth information about a scene. In particular, the disparity between objects in a scene may be determined by comparing the individual images in a stereo image pair of the scene. Provided with the disparity of a particular object and the known baseline of the stereo imaging system used to capture the stereo image pair, the distance to the object may be calculated.